When I went to college in Tucson, AZ – we had a corner Taco Bell that was shut down for using Dog Meat. Delicious. Needless to say, it kept our school newspaper running with fun stories for quite some time after that.

@Rectilinear Propagation: One taco probably doesn’t cost much money, and if it generates more revenue by bringing people into the restaurant to buy other items, then from a marketing perspective it has a positive cost outcome.

Back when they put that barge out in the middle of the ocean and said everyone would get a free taco if Mir hit it when it re-entered the atmosphere, they had an insurance policy that would pay them back if it actually happened. And for the record, yes the barge was within the area Mir was expected to hit.

The base stealing could mean not actually going from 1st to 2nd, et al, but could mean literally stealing a base. They could insist it means walking off the field with a base in hand. Since no one would actually accomplish that then the promotion will never have to provide for a free taco.

In April a Boston furniture company had a promotion to give customers FREE furniture if the Red Sox got into the World Series in 2007. Well the Sox made it in and the promotion will cost them millions.

@BigNutty: I don’t think insurance for this one is an issue. The last World Series without a stolen base was in 1989. That doesn’t exactly create insurable, hole-in-one type probability.

Can we have a show of hands: How many out there can get off of work to physically show up at a Taco Bell between 2-5 p.m. on a weekday to get your freebie?

Now, those of you with your hands still up: How much gas (at $3/gallon) do you have to burn to collect your 79Â¢ prize?

Frankly, if they give away a half-million of these things at that hour, I’d be surprised. $400K in lost revenue for the sake of promotion is what comes out of Taco Bell’s pants pockets when you run them through the dryer.

@hypnotik_jello: They take out insurance – I saw a story about a similar promotion in which they put a target out in the middle of the ocean and decreed that if a piece of Mir hit it, everyone in the US would get a free taco.

Mir fell far short of the estimated impact location in the end because it turned out the station had far more drag than anticipated.

I don’t think they are insuring against this. Insurance doesn’t work for things that are almost guaranteed to happen. It would be like people insisting on insurance for the cost of doctor checkups. Wait a minute…

Plus Taco Bell has the ‘long line effect’ on their hands. Even if everyone *did* go to Taco Bell during the appointed time, the lines would be so long, most people would abandon their quest for a 77 cent taco. I predict they throw away more tacos in a week than they will give away in this promotion.

So… if a base is stolen… I can drive to one Taco Bell, get a free taco, drive to the one just down the road (which is another city, literally), get another free taco, and then drive to the one by my college and get a third one… right?